Down in the stands, Kevin De Bruyne expressed the way they all felt: nerves shred, tension rising, pleading with his Belgium team-mates to hang on. Alongside him, Eden Hazard sat too. Both men had been withdrawn, injured, now all they could do was watch helpless as their teammates desperately hung on to a Thorgan Hazard goal that would see them go through. If, that was, Portugal couldn’t find a way through – and as the final minutes progressed that must have felt ever more imminent to them, the pressure rising all the time.
In the Belgian goal Thibaut Courtois watched Portugal come at him, the ball constantly launched into his area until, with just seconds remaining João Felix’s shot slipped past the post and Belgium slipped into the next round. Exhausted, relieved, and with two fundamental players awaiting to learn the extent of their injuries, their coach counting the cost of progression, but still standing and heading into the quarter-final.
At the end of a night that wasn’t the classic many expected but didn’t want for excitement, the jeopardy that makes sport a joy even if it doesn’t always feel that way, the current European champions were out. Portugal had lacked clarity but certainly not courage. At the full-time whistle Romelu Lukaku and Cristiano Ronaldo embraced; empty now, there was mutual admiration although neither had scored.
“This could have been the final, and finals are there to be won, not to be played,” Fernando Santos had said. By the end, he was entitled to reflected that his team did play, and certainly pushed, deserving more, but they hadn’t won. Roberto Martí-nez had suggested the first goal would shape the game; in the end, it decided it. Portugal might have got it after five minutes when Diogo Jota shot wide, but it rarely looked like coming in a first half of little incident until it actually did just before the break, Thorgan Hazard sparking an explosion.
